Guild Wars

Way, way back in time, when Guild Wars 2 first launched, character names in the original Guild Wars were reserved for those who had linked their accounts. Originally, the intent was that those names would be reserved for the headstart weekend and launch day, then released so that if someone had been sitting on Legolas Greenleaf but didn't claim it, that coveted name could be put to use. In response to a veritable flood of account issues and support tickets, however, ArenaNet postponed the release of those names -- until now. Well, not precisely now, but November 8th.

Previously reserved names will be put up for grabs on the 8th at 5:00 p.m. EST. That means if you've been putting off getting one of your own reserved names onto a new character, mark your calendars!

Things have been getting spookier and spookier around the land of Tyria. If you're a Guild Wars 2 player, I sincerely hope for your own sake that you've been able to get some time in-game in the last few days. A lot has been going on -- there've been scavenger hunts, dark tales unfolding, spectral energy levels rising, maddening races up clock towers, and so much more!

Have you been missing out? Trying to decide how best to spend your precious holiday time in-game? Let's take a look at some of the big changes that have been creeping in with the shadow of the Mad King.

By now, Lion's Arch probably looks a little different than we're used to. It had already taken on a decidedly ghoulish cast in Guild Wars by Friday, so I guess the Mad King's influence shifted by a few calendar days over the course of the 250 years between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2.

Longtime fans of the original game don't need a lot of convincing to get anxious for the fulfillment of the spooky foreshadowing that's been going on for the past week or two. For those of you whose knowledge of Tyrian lore is either developing or a wee bit rusty, let's take a look at what's in store.

Let us begin with a question. Why can't you borrow money from a Dwarf?

The Mad King hasn't been seen in Tyria for 250 years, which means it's about time for a reappearance! Guild Wars 2 is on the verge of its first major content update, and ArenaNet just shared a schedule for the Halloween story. Act one will begin on October 22nd, with the subsequent acts following on the 26th, 28th, and 31st. To whet your appetite for this spooky update, there's also a new video with a content tease, so head on over to the content page or check it out past the break.

If Guild Wars is more your speed, remember that traditional Halloween festivities will be commencing Friday, October 19th.

Guild Wars 2 has been live for more than a month. Now that ArenaNet has more or less dealt with initial problems like server stability, absurd imbalance, and exploits, the company can start looking forward. ArenaNet devs have long talked about providing new content and huge support for the game, and a blog post this morning details some of their plans for that. ArenaNet has "formed multiple live teams focused on expanding Guild Wars 2 in the long term."

So what are those teams, and what do they do? The Live Security team is all about cracking down on bots, spammers, and scammers. The Live Response team is made up of the fine folks addressing balance issues and bugs. The Living World focuses on adding new content and rewards for PvE and WvW. There's a PvP and Esports team focused on making Guild Wars 2 the best PvP game it can be. Holidays and Events have their own special team, dedicated to keeping up the Guild Wars legacy of amazing holiday content. In addition, the Holidays and Events team will be creating one-off events that occur in the world. The Mac and Performance team is working on getting Guild Wars 2 to run on the widest possible range of hardware. Bonus teams will take care of any projects that don't fall in the direct domain of other teams. Last but not least, the Commerce team will be keeping an eye on the Guild Wars 2 economy and thinking up new goodies for the Black Lion Trading Company.

Hit up the full post for all the gory details.

It's October, and you know what that means! The time for Pink Day in LA is almost upon us! The Gaming World Entertainment Network's annual Guild Wars fundraiser for the fight against breast cancer will be held on Saturday, October 20th.

Of course, the LA of Pink Day in LA is Lion's Arch, and there are two of those now. GW-EN's solution is to host parties in Lion's Arch in both Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. Up to three international districts in Guild Wars will be hosted, as will the Henge of Denravi, Dragonbrand, Stormbluff Isle, Jade Quarry, Darkhaven, Sanctum of Rall, Underworld, and Desolation servers in Guild Wars 2. You don't really need to be playing a Guild Wars game to participate: GW-EN is encouraging people to tun into the radio stream and celebrate the event no matter what game they play. Maybe we'll all accept that LA can be found in our hearts, not on some server somewhere.

Hit up the official Pink Day website for full details, including a prize list and information on how you can help.

ArenaNet has already taken the stance of waiting for players to adjust to the current state of the game before making big changes to skills and overall balance in Guild Wars 2. That mindset, as laid out by Game Director Colin Johanson in a forum post, is also being applied to dungeon difficulty. Rather than rushing to adjust to initial player feedback, ArenaNet devs are taking the long view and waiting for players to get used to the game and its difficulty. They took a similar approach with the original Guild Wars' dungeons and elite areas, to eventual success. Johanson talked about player outcry when the Domain of Anguish was first introduced and how just months later, without real balance changes, "people viewed it as the most fun thing in the game." He went on to explain:

We're actively monitoring every dungeon and working on balancing issues we encounter appropriately. We'll be keeping an eye on bosses we think don't have enough varied mechanics to warrant their large health pools and updating them over time to make them more varied/interesting fights. We'll be monitoring, and continually tweaking/adding to dungeon rewards over time and of course balancing where we see the need. And of course, we'll be looking at adding more dungeons as well!

All of that being said, the game is VERY new for most of our players, and I can absolutely promise with more knowledge of the game and advanced player skill, the explorable dungeons can all be overcome by being skilled groups. We've seen many groups do it just fine in our internal alpha test once they had time to learn how to play the game well. Just like Domain of Anguish in [Guild Wars], it takes time and practice to learn how to overcome stuff as hard as our explorable mode dungeons, and that's exactly the kind of players they are designed for.

You are surely aware that Guild Wars 2 is nearing its headstart and launch dates. You might also know that players of both Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 have a bit of incentive to link their accounts. The Massively team has been getting a fair few questions about the ins and outs of account linking, so this here is a bit of a knowledge dump that'll hopefully sort out some problems.